Belmar rolled out the red carpet for Christie, the first leg of stops he made along the Jersey Shore on Friday that also included Asbury Park, Point Pleasant Beach and Seaside Heights.

On Saturday, the governor plans to visit Ocean City and Wildwood.

Belmar, the Shillelagh Pipe and Drum Band heralded Christie before a crowd of hundreds of locals and tourists were eager to catch a glimpse of the governor as he walked across Ocean Avenue for a welcoming ceremony and a quick stroll along the boardwalk.

"As we continue to recover through (Superstorm) Sandy, he has been such an amazing leader," Doherty said in public remarks introducing Christie. "So the things we get credit for on the local level, it's because of his leadership on the state level."

Republican Christie and Democrat Doherty have become close since Sandy devastated the borough on Oct. 29, 2012. Belmar was the first town Christie visited the morning after the storm, promising Doherty that he would get whatever his borough needed, and Doherty has said that Christie kept that promise.

"We've been partners, working together to try to provide relief to the people of the town, to the businesses of the town, to try to make sure that we're putting the resources to use in a way that the town and its people think make sense," Christie said.

Tom Volker, 72, a 22-year-resident of Belmar, said people didn't care after the storm whether the person helping them was a Democrat or a Republican.

"I think back to the day after the storm and it is absolutely amazing how the people pulled together and you go over to borough hall and to see the clothes piled up to help people," Volker said. "I would not want to live through it again, but it was amazing to see."

The governor also went to Asbury Park, where he joined in a ribbon-cutting ceremony to unveil the city's reconstructed boardwalk.